www.elsblog.org - Bringing Data and Methods to Our Legal Madness

01 March 2006

New Book - The Politics of Precedent

I received a desk copy of Thomas Hansford's
and James Spriggs'
new book, The
Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court (Princeton 2006), which
Amazon reports as being available this Friday, March 3rd. Their "key"
question is: "Why and when does the Court interpret its precedent
positively or negatively." (p. 8) In answering this question, Hansford and
Spriggs expressly recognize the role of both policy and legal concerns
in judicial decision-making—even in the court where, relative to other
American courts, ideology likely matters most.